Bio: (1944-) American sociologist. Christopher Chase-Dunn teaches at the University of California at Riverside and is one of the most famous authors in the field of world-system theory. He is the founder of the Journal of World-Systems Research. He continued to develop world-system theory, extending it to earlier periods and introducing the concept of a mini-world-system, which he developed by studying the Wintu people of Northern California. In the book Rise and Demise: Comparing World – Systems (1997), he presents the thesis that the states that were on the periphery of the world system, and were heading towards the center, were the main cause of the formation of empires and the development of trade. A similar process is happening today in Mexico, India, South Korea, and Brazil, which could lead to the transformation of the current global system. In the book Global Social Change: Historical and Comparative Perspectives (2006), Chase-Dunn concludes that in periods of recession and economic decline, de-globalization occurs. He points out that political globalization represents the internationalization of political structures and leads to the creation of a growing consensus on the international normative order. He also studied the causes of socio-cultural evolution, global civil society, and the democratization of global governance. 

Main works

Socialist States in the World System (1982);

Global Formation: Structures of the World Economy (1989);

Core/periphery Relations In Precapitalist Worlds (1991);

Rise and Demise: Comparing World – Systems (1997);

The Wintu and Their Neighbors: A Very Small World-System in Northern California (1998);

The Spiral of Capitalism and Socialism: Toward Global Democracy (2000);

The Historical Evolution of World-Systems (2005);

Global Social Change: Historical and Comparative Perspectives (2006);

Social Change: Globalization from the Stone Age to the Present (2013);

Overcoming Global Inequalities (2016);

Global Struggles and Social Change: From Prehistory to World Revolution in the Twenty-First Century (2020);

BRICS and the New American Imperialism: Global Rivalry and Resistance (2020).